Jobs shortage

Government comments on the jobs shortage, some people think it is not a shortage but Idle people.

A government minister has stated there is "no shortage of jobs", blaming unemployment on people's unwillingness to apply for the work available.

Maria Miller, the minister for disabled people in the Department for Work and Pensions, said she believed the unemployment problem was down to a lack of "appetite" for the jobs on offer.

Her comments on Sunday night are likely to provoke anger among those desperately seeking work with little success. The latest official count of unemployed people stands at 2.68 million, while the number of new workers being sought by employers in the last quarter of 2011 was 463,000. This is equivalent to about six people for every vacancy in the country.

Recent analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research found wide variations across the country.  For example in Hartlepool there are 16 jobseekers for every vacancy, while in Middlesbrough there are 12.

But Miller appeared confident the problem lay with people's unwillingness to take jobs or not knowing "where those jobs are".

Asked about unemployment on BBC Radio 5's Pienaar's Politics, the minister said: "If you actually look at the facts and the figures, there's 400,000 jobs at any one point in jobcentres. I was up in the Wirral on Friday talking to one of our local jobcentres there and there isn't a shortage of jobs. What there can be is a lack of an appetite for some of jobs that are available.

"So we've got to make sure people have got the right skills, that they don't see a risk in moving into employment and that this is not just a choice but it's actually the route they are going to take. So I don't think it's a lack of jobs at the moment, I think it really is making sure that we've got people knowing where those jobs are."